Re: Mixing OO and DB
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:37:46 +0100
Message-ID: <47d5b7ff$0$14359$e4fe514c_at_news.xs4all.nl>
David Cressey wrote:
> mAsterdam wrote:
>> Brian Selzer wrote: >>> Patrick May wrote: >>>> Brian Selzer writes: >>>>> Patrick May wrote: >>>> ... decoupling the application logic from the database schema. >>> I don't agree with this. You're equating the database schema with >>> the database implementation. The schema specifies what information >>> is to be and can be recorded. As such the schema is an integral >>> part of the application specification, and it cannot be decoupled, >>> but that doesn't mean that the database implementation cannot. >>> The schema does not specify how information is physically >>> recorded, nor does it specify the process by which the >>> recording takes place. >> The failure to make this distinction (what vs how with regard to >> data) would score high on a hypothetical top ten of 'misconceptions >> to get rid of a.s.a.p. - for DB beginners with an OO background'.
>
> It's unnecessary to single out OO programmers for this comment.
My bad. s/OO/programming/
> Back in the mid 1980s, I taught Rdb/VMS courses to DEC
> customers and software specialists (after learning it myself).
> The programmers I taught were generally from a COBOL, BASIC,
> FORTRAN, or C background, and not from an OO background.
> The distinction between "what" and "how" was just as novel to
> them as it is today for the OO programmer.
Maybe the programmers from big burocratic teams have a slight advantage here; however ..
> The "what" versus "how" distinction can be generalized from database query
> languages to cover just about any aspect of computing.
.. overzealously applying /this/ distinction as a matter of principle leads to moronic red-tape "methodologies".
> Even the difference
> batween machine language and assembler can be discussed in terms of "what"
> vs "how", although not completely.
-- What you see depends on where you stand.Received on Mon Mar 10 2008 - 23:37:46 CET